What should be the minimum legal age for recreational cannabis? This is what a recent study published in The American Journal on Drug and Alcohol Abuse hopes to address as a team of scientists investigated the benefits and challenges of raising the legal age for using recreational marijuana to 25, with the current age range being 18 to 21, depending on the country. This study has the potential to help researchers, legislators, and the public better understand the neuroscience behind the appropriate age for cannabis use.
For the study, the researchers examined brain development for individuals aged 18-25, specifically regarding brain maturation and whether this ceases before age 25. They note it depends on a myriad of factors, including sex, geographic region, and physiology. This study comes as Germany recently published several studies regarding legalizing recreational marijuana nationwide and marijuana use rates post-legalization. In the end, the researchers for this most recent study concluded that raising the minimum legal age for recreational cannabis use to 25 is unnecessary.
The study notes, “This Perspective concludes that an MLA between 18–21 years is a scientifically supportable and socially coherent threshold for non-medical cannabis use. Policy decisions should be informed not only by neurobiological evidence but also by legal, justice, sociocultural, psychological, and historical considerations.”
While the minimum legal age for recreational cannabis use in the United States remains 21 years of age, several nations have 18 listed as the minimum legal age, including Germany, Luxembourg, Malta, South Africa, Uruguay, Netherlands, and Spain. In Canada, the minimum legal age depends on province, with Alberta being 18, Quebec being 21, and most other provinces being 19.
What new insight into age limits for recreational cannabis use will researchers make in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!
As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!
Sources: American Journal on Drug and Alcohol Abuse, Marijuana Moment
